'86 Ranger, Interior dome light turns off, when headlights pulled on, but there are no headlights...Then Dome light turns on, when headlight knob is turned off.... and stays ON until I disconnect the battery...weird

This to me seems very weird, or it's a case of ...."MY BAD". Unless I forgot to turn down my interior light yesterday after going to the local store, and without noticing the light left on when I exited and locked the car (it was daytime, so I did not notice) I must have drained the battery.

First thing tonight, I wanted to go to the post office, I noticed the Interior light was on, but dimly lit, so I tried to turn it down to the off position on my light pull knob, but instead, when I pulled my headlights on, the light interior dome lights goes OFF.

I opened my hood, moved the battery cables around and noticed the interior light was getting brighter than before, so I thought, Ha Ha!.... The power is back, so when I tried to start the engine, everything went dead, except for the dome light again.

Is it only me who thinks this is totally weird, when I pull the headlights knob to ON, the dome light goes OFF, when I push headlights IN, then dome light goes ON! I've tried turning the dome light to the OFF position, but as long as the battery cables are connected, the dome light STAYS ON, and I can not turn it off, unless like i said, i disconnect the battery cables.

Could I have a DEAD battery, or an electrical short that causes this?

Please restore any sense of sanity. it does not turn over or anything, but the dome light remains on all the time.

I'd get the battery charged or replaced if it's bad and see what happens then. Poor voltage can cause lots of wierd problems. Especially on the newer vehicles. Yours might still have some electrical gremlins.

Sounds like knackered battery , there is just enough power to light dome light .As Bert suggests get battery charged / tested and replaced if needed .Take bulb out of dome light as a temp fix till you figure out why it's on all the time .

Remember, these trucks have a pull knob with a rotating dimmer and a detent for the dome light. You pull out the knob to turn on the exterior lights, twist the knob left (doesn't matter if the outside lights are on/off) past the detent, you have the dome light on, twist to the right, you are in the rheostat for the dash lights.

make sure you aren't accidentally twisting the dome light switch to the left when either turning on or off the headlights.

If that's been ruled out, then perhaps your battery is on its way out or simply needs the terminals cleaned up, all that corrosion can cause the cables to not have good contact with the poles on the battery and if the battery is indeed dead, replace it.

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